Weddingbee Blog

Hive, you will never guess what happened to me recently:

Sad day.

Yeah…that’s my ignition. Which was ripped out. When my car was hotwired. Like in a movie.

My car was stolen from our gated apartment complex, then found only a few hours later. I was thrilled that they found it, but what ensued was a big fat mess. I spent my entire Saturday at the East Point Jail trying to obtain clearance to retrieve my car from the police’s tow lot, and then I spent the next week on the phone with Allstate. Also, we had scheduled a food tasting at our venue in the middle of all of this chaos.

I knew we couldn’t cancel or postpone the tasting, which was scheduled for the evening of the day the car was stolen. Our venue, Anthony’s Fine Dining, has a different menu for events than they do for their daily restaurant. They had set aside special ingredients to make special food just for us! It would have been really rude to neglect that, but we were EXHAUSTED. All I wanted to do was put on some sweatpants, take my rental to Chick-Fil-A, go home, and chill. We decided to suck it up and not let our venue down. We left the police station, changed into pretty clothes, and headed to Anthony’s.

I was certain that we would not be able to relax and enjoy our meal. A million questions raced through my head: How much is my insurance going to cover? Is my car going to be OK? Will this affect our wedding fund?! As soon as we walked up to Anthony’s front door, all of these questions vanished. We felt right at home when we sat down to eat. Our waiter was a breath of fresh air compared to the horrible customer service we had received everywhere else all day long. And then there was the food. OMG THE FOOD.

We plan to serve our wedding guests a sit-down lunch. We’ll have passed hors d’oeuvres, salad, an entree of their choice, and wedding cake. Overall, we were trying to go for an “upscale Southern comfort food” vibe. We started off with freshly baked bread served with Anthony’s “signature butter,” cream cheese mixed with sun-dried tomatoes, basil, and feta. Then came the appetizers. Mr. Lion ordered “Southern Spring Rolls,” a barbecue-themed rendition of the usual Southwestern egg rolls. I had a baked brie, which, though delicious, I could not envision our guests eating. It was messy, and just not all that exciting. Brie is a favorite of mine, but there’s nothing special or unique about it. Next, Mr. Lion had a chopped salad with bleu cheese and bacon, while I had a spinach salad with walnuts and dates. Mr. Lion won that round, too. Spinach salad is yummy, but the chopped salad better fit our theme.

Finally, we received our entrees. We had hoped to allow our guests to choose between chicken and fish. There aren’t any vegetarians in our family, we’re having pork at rehearsal dinner, and beef sounded too heavy for the middle of the day. We glanced through Anthony’s menu and picked one of each to try first. I think we may have gotten it right on our first try.

Mr. Lion enjoyed the New Zealand King Salmon…

A very happy Mr. Lion

…while I sampled the Chicken Pecan.

Clearly way too busy to smile at the camera

{all personal photos}

Both entrees were served with carrots, asparagus, mashed potatoes, and, of course, fried green tomatoes.

In the midst of a very stressful week, one simple meal reminded us of all we have to look forward to and confirmed that we chose the best venue for us.

What kind of things keep you excited about your big day?